Page 13 of Meant to be Mine

Callum smiled. “How is she?”

“Good. Same. Better, actually.” I stopped before I said anything else along those lines and took another sip of my beer.

Cleo was watching me with an expression I didn’t particularly love. She could read us far too easily.

“She came with you to the site?” Cleo pressed.

“She was at the store when I had to leave, so I brought her along. She was helpful, actually.” I shifted in my chair. “Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about. I asked her to come on as my assistant. Just for the summer promo. Temp situation. Six weeks, maybe.”

“What did she say?” Victoria asked.

“She said she’d sleep on it.”

Hollis pointed his spatula at the table. “Burgers are ready. Everybody up.”

There was the usual shuffle of people finding plates and moving toward the grill. Hollis had set up a whole spread on the side table—brioche buns, a lineup of toppings that I hoped would mask the taste of fake burger. Sliced tomato, arugula, pickled onions, two different kinds of cheese, three sauces. For a fake burger, it had a very serious presentation.

“The toppings are all there to complement, not to cover,” Hollis said as if he read my mind. “I want you to taste the burger. Don’t bury it in sauce.”

“Bold request,” Callum said.

I built mine the way I always built a burger. I took a bite, bracing myself for the taste of alfalfa. And then I stopped chewing. Took another bite.

Hollis was watching me with the expression of a man who had been waiting a long time to be vindicated.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?” he repeated.

“Okay, it’s good.” I took another bite. “It’s really good, Hollis. I don’t know what’s in this but I don’t feel like a cottontail.”

He rolled his eyes. “Ha. Fucking. Ha.”

Callum was eating and nodding, which meant he was also surprised. He chewed slowly. His jaw stopped. He looked down at the burger in his hands like he needed to verify what he picked up.

“It’s good,” Callum said. “It’s genuinely good.”

Victoria didn’t bother hiding it. “Hollis, this is incredible.”

“Eight months of development,” Hollis said simply.

“We were wrong,” Micah said. “I’ll say it. I was wrong. This is legitimately good.”

Hollis sat down at the head of the table, picked up his own burger, and took a bite. He was already smiling because he knew he’d just created something big.

We talked a bit about summer plans. The latest Blackwell baby news from New York. Usual stuff.

“You seem like you’re in a good mood,” Victoria said. “I know I haven’t known you your whole life, but you seem a lot happier than I’ve seen you in the last six months.”

“I’m always happy,” I replied.

“You’ve been a little stretched lately. Every time Callum talks to you, you sound like you’ve got six things on fire at once.”

“I usually do.”

“Tonight you don’t,” she said. “You seem lighter.”

I considered that. She wasn’t wrong. I knew exactly why. I just wasn’t going to say it out loud at this table.